In this comprehensive guidebook, three experienced entertainment lawyers tell you everything you need to know to produce and market an independent film from the development process to deal making, financing, setting up the production, hiring directors and actors, securing location rights, acquiring music, calculating profits, digital moving making, distribution, and marketing your movie.

In this comprehensive guidebook, three experienced entertainment lawyers tell you everything you need to know to produce and market an independent film - from the development process to deal making, financing, setting up the production, hiring directors and actors, securing location rights, acquiring music, calculating profits, digital moving making, distribution, and marketing your movie. This all-new second edition has been completed updated.

Today's independent and digital filmmaking demands a clear guide to the business and legal aspects of the art. What fundraising options are available to a filmmaker? When should a filmmaker establish a corporation or limited liability company? How do screenwriters protect their work? What are a director's legal obligations to the producer, cast, and crew--and what are their obligations in return? This indispensable resource addresses the legal, financial, and organizational questions that an independent or guerrilla filmmaker must face, and the problems that will doom a project if left unanswered. It demystifies issues such as founding a film company, obtaining financing, preparing a budget, securing locations, shooting, granting screen credits, and distributing, exhibiting, and marketing a film. Newly updated and expanded, this third edition explores concepts such as integrating social media; crowd funding and nonprofit status funding; diversity, inclusion, and compensation equity; and distribution via streaming services. Appendixes provide sample contracts and riders, copyright circulars, Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, and more.

Indie Film Producing explains the simple, basic, clear cut role of the independent film producer. Raising funds to do your dream project, producing award-winning films with a low budget, putting name actors on your indie film-it's all doable, and this book guides you through the entire process of being a successful producer with bonus tips on how to effortlessly maneuver through the sphere of social media marketing and fundraising tactics. Indie film producer Suzanne Lyons pilots you through the actual making of low budget films to show you how easy and fun it can be. Laid out in a step-by-step, A to Z, matter-of-fact style that shows how the producer's role can be easy, how to treat the film as a business, and especially how to avoid the painful pitfalls faced by so many producers, this book gives you the essential tools you need to make your film a success from the ground up. . Begins with the earliest stages of concept development, continues through production & post, and ultimately concludes with distribution . Shows you how to create a buzz for your film through marketing and promotions . Interviews with global producers who produced films using social media, festivals, apps, and more, give you real-world insight that can be applied to your own films . Website points you to a fantastic collection of resources that you'll need to produce your own films (http://booksite.focalpress.com/indiefilmproducing)

Filmmakers need more than heart, talent and desire to realize their dreams: they need production capital. Finding willing investors can be the most difficult step in an aspiring filmmaker's pursuit of higher-budget, entertaining motion pictures. This practical guide provides detailed instructions on preparing the most important tool for recruiting investors, a persuasive business plan. Included in this new edition are suggested ways to approach potential investors; lists of various financial sources available to Hollywood productions, and tips on spotting unscrupulous financiers. Interviews with key Hollywood producers offer real-world insight.

This book explains how to comply with the federal and states securities regulations when seeking to raise money from private investors for the development, production and/or distribution of a feature or documentary film. Drawing from the experience and expertise of a securities and entertainment attorney who has worked with independent filmmakers for 30 plus years, this resource explores securities law compliance in order to help readers comply with the law and avoid criminal and civil liability, while successfully raising investor funds for their film projects. Readers will gain an understanding of why the securities laws apply to most investor financing transactions, what choices need to be made by the filmmaker, what information needs to be disclosed to prospective investors, how to comply with the SEC’s policy regarding financial projections, what is the appropriate investment vehicle for various forms of investor financing, what limitations are imposed on the use of finders and how to handle the required federal and state notice filings. It is an essential resource for any film student taking a film finance course (or a production course with a film finance component), as well as any independent film producers, entertainment/securities attorneys and film school instructors, who want to be informed about the legal and practical aspects of investor financing of independent films.

The Musician’s Business and Legal Guide provides vital information to help demystify the music business and the complex body of law that shapes it. This book answers such questions as how to protect name and copyright; what is and is not legal about sampling; what are the legal issues surrounding digital downloads and streaming; what are the jobs of managers, talent agents and publishers; what are common contractual relationship between independent and major labels. The new edition includes chapters not covered in depth by other books: social media law, TV talent shows, YouTube, and international copyright. As in previous editions, the book features clause-by-clause contract analyses for 360 record deals, music publishing, management, and producer agreements.